1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to parallel processor computer systems and, more particularly, to parallel processor computer systems having software for detecting natural concurrencies in instruction streams and having a plurality of processor elements for processing the detected natural concurrencies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Almost all prior art computer systems are of the "Von Neumann" construction. In fact, the first four generations of computers are Von Neumann machines which use a single large processor to sequentially process data. In recent years, considerable effort has been directed towards the creation of a fifth generation computer which is not of the Von Neumann type. One characteristic of the so-called fifth generation computer relates to its ability to perform parallel computation through use of a number of processor elements. With the advent of very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, the economic cost of using a number of individual processor elements becomes cost effective.
Whether or not an actual fifth generation machine has yet been constructed is subject to debate, but various features have been defined and classified. Fifth-generation machines should be capable of using multiple-instruction, multiple-data (MIMD) streams rather than simply being a single instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) system typical of fourth generation machines. The present invention is of the fifth-generation non-Von Neumann type. It is capable of using MIMD streams in single context (SC-MIMD) or in multiple context (MC-MIMD) as those terms are defined below. The present invention also finds application in the entire computer classification of single and multiple context SIMD (SC-SIMD and MC-SIMD) machines as well as single and multiple context, single-instruction, single data (SC-SISD and MC-SISD) machines.
While the design of fifth-generation computer systems is fully in a state of flux, certain categories of systems have been defined. Some workers in the field base the type of computer upon the manner in which "control" or "synchronization" of the system is performed. The control classification includes control-driven, data-driven, and reduction (or demand) driven. The control-driven system utilizes a centralized control such as a program counter or a master processor to control processing by the slave processors. An example of a control-driven machine is the Non-von-1 machine at Columbia University. In data-driven systems, control of the system results from the actual arrival of data required for processing. An example of a data-driven machine is the University of Manchester dataflow machine developed in England by Ian Watson. Reduction driven systems control processing when the processed activity demands results to occur. An example of a reduction processor is the MAGO reduction machine being developed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The characteristics of the non-von-1 machine, the Manchester machine, and the MAGO reduction machine are carefully discussed in Davis, "Computer Architecture," IEEE Spectrum, November, 1983. In comparison, data-driven and demand-driven systems are decentralized approaches whereas control-driven systems represent a centralized approach. The present invention is more properly categorized in a fourth classification which could be termed "time-driven." Like data-driven and demand-driven systems, the control system of the present invention is decentralized. However, like the control-driven system, the present invention conducts processing when an activity is ready for execution.
Most computer systems involving parallel processing concepts have proliferated from a large number of different types of computer architectures. In such cases, the unique nature of the computer architecture mandates or requires either its own processing language or substantial modification of an existing language to be adapted for use. To take advantage of the highly parallel structure of such computer architectures, the programmer is required to have an intimate knowledge of the computer architecture in order to write the necessary software. As a result, preparing programs for these machines requires substantial amounts of the users effort, money and time.
Concurrent to this activity, work has also been progressing on the creation of new software and languages, independent of a specific computer architecture, that will expose (in a more direct manner), the inherent parallelism of the computation process. However, most effort in designing supercomputers has been concentrated in developing new hardware with much less effort directed to developing new software.
Davis has speculated that the best approach to the design of a fifth-generation machine is to concentrate efforts on the mapping of the concurrent program tasks in the software onto the physical hardware resources of the computer architecture. Davis terms this approach one of "task-allocation" and touts it as being the ultimate key to successful fifth-generation architectures. He categorizes the allocation strategies into two generic types. "Static allocations" are performed once, prior to execution, whereas "dynamic allocations" are performed by the hardware whenever the program is executed or run. The present invention utilizes a static allocation strategy and provides task allocations for a given program after compilation and prior to execution. The recognition of the "task allocation" approach in the design of fifth generation machines was used by Davis in the design of his "Data-driven Machine-II" constructed at the University of Utah. In the Data-driven Machine-II, the program was compiled into a program graph that resembles the actual machine graph or architecture.
Task allocation is also referred to as "scheduling" in Gaiski et al, "Essential Issues in Multi-processor Systems," Computer, June, 1985. Gajski et al set forth levels of scheduling to include high level, intermediate level, and low level scheduling. The present invention is one of low-level scheduling, but it does not use conventional scheduling policies of "first-in-first-out", "round-robin", "shortest type in job-first", or "shortest-remaining-time." Gajski et al also recognize the advantage of static scheduling in that overhead costs are paid at compile time. However, Gajski et al's recognized disadvantage, with respect to static scheduling, of possible inefficiencies in guessing the run time profile of each task is not found in the present invention. Therefore, the conventional approaches to low-level static scheduling found in the Occam language and the Bulldog compiler are not found in the software portion of the present invention. Indeed, the low-level static scheduling of the present invention provides the same type, if not better, utilization of the processors commonly seen in dynamic scheduling by the machine at run time. Furthermore, the low-level static scheduling of the present invention is performed automatically without intervention of programmers as required (for example) in the Occam language.
Davis further recognizes that communication is a critical feature in concurrent processing in that the actual physical topology of the system significantly influences the overall performance of the system.
For example, the fundamental problem found in most data-flow machines is the large amount of communication overhead in moving data between the processors. When data is moved over a bus, significant overhead, and possible degradation of the system, can result if data must contend for access to the bus. For example, the Arvind data-flow machine, referenced in Davis, utilizes an I-structure stream in order to allow the data to remain in one place which then becomes accessible by all processors. The present invention, in one aspect, teaches a method of hardware and software based upon totally coupling the hardware resources thereby significantly simplifying the communication problems inherent in systems that perform multiprocessing.
Another feature of non-Von Neumann type multiprocessor systems is the level of granularity of the parallelism being processed. Gajski et al term this "partitioning." The goal in designing a system, according to Gajski et al, is to obtain as much parallelism as possible with the lowest amount of overhead. The present invention performs concurrent processing at the lowest level available, the "per instruction" level. The present invention, in another aspect, teaches a method whereby this level of parallelism is obtainable without execution time overhead.
Despite all of the work that has been done with multi-processor parallel machines, Davis (Id. at 99) recognizes that such software and/or hardware approaches are primarily designed for individual tasks and are not universally suitable for all types of tasks or programs as has been the hallmark with Von Neumann architectures. The present invention sets forth a computer system and method that is generally suitable for many different types of tasks since it operates on the natural concurrencies existent in the instruction stream at a very fine level of granularity.
All general purpose computer systems and many special purpose computer systems have operating systems or monitor/control programs which support the processing of multiple activities or programs. In some cases this processing occurs simultaneously; in other cases the processing alternates among the activities such that only one activity controls the processing resources at any one time. This latter case is often referred to as time sharing, time slicing, or concurrent (versus simultaneous) execution, depending on the particular computer system. Also depending on the specific system, these individual activities or programs are usually referred to as tasks, processes, or contexts. In all cases, there is a method to support the switching of control among these various programs and between the programs and the operating system, which is usually referred to as task switching, process switching, or context switching. Throughout this document, these terms are considered synonymous, and the terms context and context switching are generally used.
The present invention, therefore, pertains to a non-Von Neumann MIMD computer system capable of simultaneously operating upon many different and conventional programs by one or more different users. The natural concurrencies in each program are statically allocated, at a very fine level of granularity, and intelligence is added to the instruction stream at essentially the object code level. The added intelligence can include, for example, a logical processor number and an instruction firing time in order to provide the time-driven decentralized control for the present invention. The detection and low level scheduling of the natural concurrencies and the adding of the intelligence occurs only once for a given program, after conventional compiling of the program, without user intervention and prior to execution. The results of this static allocation are executed on a system containing a plurality of processor elements. In one embodiment of the invention, the processors are identical. The processor elements, in this illustrated embodiment, contain no execution state information from the execution of previous instructions, that is, they are context free. In addition, a plurality of context files, one for each user, are provided wherein the plurality of processor elements can access any storage resource contained in any context file through total coupling of the processor element to the shared resource during the processing of an instruction. In a preferred aspect of the present invention, no condition code or results registers are found on the individual processor elements.